Three Fictions about Obama's Second Term (and Why They aren't Encouraging)

A week after the presidential election, we're wading deep in election analyses and prognoses for what a second Obama term means to the nation. Republicans and conservatives, of course, are keenly interested in what the president's reelection means to their fortunes. It might be helpful to address a few key arguments advanced by pundits about the election and its consequences -- arguments that could be loosely defined as fictions.
First, voters didn't give President Obama a mandate for his lame duck term. The president won the national popular vote narrowly and, likewise, vote totals were close in critical swing states. These are, indeed, facts. But Mr. Obama won handily in the Electoral College. In part, a big victory in electoral votes gives a presidential campaign winner a "mandate" that a close popular vote does not.
You may suggest that the president really didn't campaign on any new initiatives; most of what he did during the election was rope-a-dope. Hence, no second term...(Read Full Article)